I’ve never seen anyone say how they tasked. Does anyone have any experience w these?
Thanks,
Bob
Dallas
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I plan to graft it onto one of my trees this year. @Appleseed70 Jeff is hooking me up with a budstick.
Potomac is reported to be a more fireblight resistant version of D’Anjou, which is one of its parents (the other being Moonglow). Buttery texture pear. Seems to do well in the Northeast. I’m not sure how it would perform in Texas. The Adams County Nursery description is what caught my attention:
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Hey Bob same here have never heard anyone anywhere say peep about how it tastes. In fact I’m not sure if I have ever heard of anyone who has fruited it before. Kinda makes me hesitant.
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Same here. Have never heard anything from anyone I know who’s actually grown it.
Most catalog descriptions have bordered on damning with faint praise…
@Appleseed70 and @TheFluffyBunny have both fruited the Potomac pear.
Appleseed70 has reported on this forum that he likes Potomac’s taste and that it indeed very much resembles D’Anjou in eating qualities:
TheFluffyBunny says he does not really care for Potomac (or D’Anjou for that matter) but it is one of “[his] woman’s” favorites:
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Just added a pear to my wish list for next year, thanks for the detailed review fluffy.
Thanks everyone. Fluffy, where are you located?
In the literal hellhole known as IL west of Chicago Basically zone 4b/5a.
Are you in the burbs or in the country?
west of Naperville… not a suburb and not country
Ok, guess I’ll try Potomac. If I’m not known for anything else in this life, maybe I’ll be remembered as the first person to try a Potomac in north Dallas. 
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Chill hours is my main concern w Potomac, some years we only get 600 hours; but the only way to find out I know of is to try one. Nathan’s Houston pears are all too low chill for here; they bloom in Jan-Feb and our annual Mid-March late freeze wipes them out.
I agree Bob chill will be the concern and I’m sure no one can tell you what the chill hours needed are so you are right you’ll just have to try one. I haven’t been too tempted by this one only because I don’t really like D’anjou that much. I also agree that most of the Houston pears are too low chill for us. I do think Tennosui will work here though. I am growing that one but no fruit yet. By the way have either of you talked with Dr. Natelson recently? I used to communicate with him pretty regularly but I haven’t spoken with him in a bit.
Hi Scaper! I attended a talk he gave at a Houston fruit tasting event a year and a half ago, but I don’t really know him.
My Harrow Sweet had a bunch of flowers last year, but like all my other pears fireblight wiped them out; that daily rain for 3-4 months was really something. Guess I’ll find out about H Sweet this year.
Thanks Bob. Yeah Doctor Ethan was definateley someone I consider a friend. I tried emailing him recently and got a message that was no longer a good email address. Let me know what happens with your HS pear for sure. I’m worried that we may have had enough chill this year for the pears to do much.
I’m worried about chill hours this year too. It’s been abnormally warm. 5-6 years ago, perhaps before you got here, we had a similar winter and I didn’t get any pears, not even Keiffers.
I’m from Aurora, far west side, with all of the family still there. Kind of neat to know of others nearby.
My dozen or so potomac pears were shook from the tree last night unripe in the August 16th storm. The pears are large and even green the sugar content is higher.
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I have a few Potomac grafts but they don’t seem to be in the right location on the trees and are slow growing. I plan on moving one into a prime spot next spring
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We may get another chance with these this year since i saw a few flower buds.